Lingo24 translates US customers into sales growth

DOMINIC JEFF

Edinburgh-based translation firm Lingo24 has reported double-digit revenue growth for last year as its US sales continue to boom.

The company, founded by Christian Arno in 2001, saw revenues of £8.3 million in 2014, up 11 per cent on the previous year.

It now employs more than 220 staff worldwide, while its network of 4,000 professional linguists translates more than 65 million words a year.

It said organic growth was being driven by development of its existing client base, with a strong focus on the US. Key clients driving growth include Beats by Dre, Eventbrite and The Economist group.

Last April Lingo24 was given a boost when oil consultancy veteran Paul Gregory led a consortium of business leaders to take a minority stake in the business.

Arno, who still leads the firm, said he was confident the firm could continue its double-digit growth trajectory in 2015.

“The addition of Paul Gregory as a significant investor in the business and as chairman of our board has given us a huge boost. He brings incredible levels of insight and motivation to our team,” he said.

“In addition to investment from Paul, I was very happy to welcome interest and investment from American entrepreneur Ted Alling, who joins our advisory board as director for the US.”

Arno added: “Technology will continue to play a central part in our business, and we will push forward with developments in machine translation technology and plugins for our API [application programme interface] solution to really support our clients in their requirements for faster, cheaper and more accurate translations.

“We’re also recruiting for five new roles in Scotland right now, and are proud to be supporting growth in the Scottish economy in 2015.”